Wrestling with the Big Questions That Won't Go Away

The Physics of Prayer

Prayer is a bit like time travel. When you enter the reality of prayer, you are entering the future. In prayer, you create the world that you want to see in the world you’ve left behind.

When you step out of prayer, you find that you’ve traveled back in time where the future you created with God remains to come into being.

The praying Christian lives in multiple realities and different time zones. He is tempted to believe that what he sees around him is real. But she has to remind herself that the world she lives in is a passing chapter, waiting to make way for the world she has called into being in prayer.

He is drawn to despair because what he saw in the future can’t be found in the present. But she has to remind herself that the unseen reality, which was revealed in prayer, will come into view when its time.

The praying Christian is always one step ahead of the world. She doesn’t get distracted because she knows where history is heading. He doesn’t get discouraged because his eyes are fixed on the unseen.

Prayer is not merely a conversation with God about personal matters. It’s a call to take hold of a greater reality and drag it into the present. It’s an invitation to step into the future and create the world we want to live in.

God wants to show the future to people who close their eyes.

“The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them,” Psalm 25:14